By Bob Holmes, Thomson Reuters Global Legal Products

China's legal system has hit the big time. The nation's fast-paced economic growth (China's gross domestic product expected 9.8 percent growth in 2008) is fueling a continued increase in the volume of legal and business activity.*

However, researching Chinese legal requirements can be a daunting task. It can be very difficult to search the numerous Chinese regulations and policies issued by a wide variety of regulatory bodies, any of which can be critical to determining a client's legal rights and obligations. And, until recently, there has not been a reliable and complete law library or legal search engine available in China.†

Enter Westlaw China.

Westlaw China is the new one-stop source for legal and business information about the People's Republic of China, offering easy access to current Chinese laws, regulations, and cases that are cross-linked to related materials such as the following:

• more than 300,000 laws and regulations from all Central People's Government agencies, 31 provinces, municipalities under the central government, and autonomous regions
• cases from the Supreme Court and provincial, local, and special courts
• current awareness (online and via e-mail) drawn from more than 120 online sources, such as the Xinhua News Agency
• legal digests covering 32 topics, including nine available in English (unfair competition, arbitration, civil law, civil procedure, copyright, trademark, foreign direct investment, mergers and acquisitions, and telecom and Internet law), with more translations to be added

"There is a dearth of products that organize this information in a way that makes it easier for practicing attorneys to do their work," says Helen Owers, Thomson International's Legal and Regulatory chief operating officer. "Westlaw China editors are Western-trained attorneys who are knowledgeable about Chinese law and fluent in both Chinese and English. The quality of their work sets Westlaw China apart from all other online resources."

Ease of use is perhaps the most compelling feature of Westlaw China. Although the product contains advanced (yet user-friendly) search templates, the researcher isn't bound by word searches: More than 300,000 legal issues are identified, summarized, and integrated into topical digests by trained, bilingual legal editors. Expert legal translators provide high-quality English translations, providing the full meaning and nuances of a word, phrase, or idea in its legal context. As a result, you get answers on point and in a timely manner.

"Prior to the launch of Westlaw China, we surveyed attorneys and law students in China and in the U.S. to determine the pain points for legal research in Chinese law," says Stephen Yao, chief executive officer, Westlaw China. "This customer-centric approach, along with our own knowledge of the Chinese legal system, was used to develop Westlaw China. It will help you understand the issues before talking to others, carefully craft queries that need to be answered by Chinese experts, and properly interpret results from Chinese counsel. The service will help control law firm costs by reducing the time needed to process questions and by using outside counsel more wisely."

Once you subscribe to Westlaw China, you can sign on at www.westlawchina.com. Then you can perform any of the following tasks:

• run a search
• view a document in Chinese or in a bilingual screen image
• get today's news—how and when you want it
• browse a content category, e.g., Laws and Regulations or Legal Topics
• click the Current Awareness tab to view a list of news and other current awareness documents
• click Sign up at the home page and subscribe to current awareness updates via e-mail

For more information about Westlaw China or to sign up for a free 14-day trial, http://west.thomson.com/westlaw/global/china/.

*Steven C. Bennett, Litigation in China: Ten Things You Must Know, Metropolitan Corp. Couns., October 2008, at 19.

†Michael J. Meagher & Lucia Lian, Chinese Law for Lao Wai: A Survey of Chinese Law for American Business Lawyers, 51 B. B.J. 17 (2007).